Changes afoot in the east end

Katherine Wilton, THE GAZETTE04.06.2014

Rita De Santis, right, the Quebec Liberal Party MNA for Bourassa-Sauvé, said the PQ’s proposed Charter of Values led to “the largest mobilization” she has seen since Quebec’s two referendums on sovereignty.

MONTREAL - The Liberals and the Parti Québécois hung onto the eastern Montreal ridings they held going into Monday’s vote — and in most cases have had a lock on for years.

Which isn’t to suggest nothing new was afoot in the eastern part of the island.

In the days leading up to the vote, Liberal candidate Rita De Santis, who was easily re-elected Monday night, said she had detected a grassroots mobilization against the PQ’s proposed charter of values among minority groups. She predicted it would result in higher voter turnout and greater support for the Liberals in her riding of Bourassa-Sauvé and in other Liberal ridings in the eastern part of Montreal Island.

She was right. In most of five ridings where Liberals were re-elected, their margin of victory at least doubled.

“It’s the largest mobilization that I have seen since the 1980 and 1995 (referendums),” said De Santis, who won by more than 10,000 votes. “They’re organizing within their communities to get people to go out and vote.”

The Muslim community spread the word at mosques, and young voters from ethnic minorities were encouraging their parents and grandparents to get out and vote, De Santis said early on Monday.

In Anjou-Louis-Riel, Liberal MNA Lise Thériault said she sensed early on in the campaign that voters were turned off by talk of a referendum on separation. “I have young people in their 40s saying: ‘I already have a country and that country is Canada,’” said Thériault, who won by 8,000 votes Monday night.

Longtime PQ MNAs Nicole Léger and Maka Kotto fought off challenges from the Liberals and the Coalition Avenir Québec in Pointe-aux-Trembles and Bourget, PQ ridings with a large number of francophone voters.

In Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, PQ incumbent Carole Poirier was in a tight race before prevailing over Alexandre Leduc of Québec solidaire.

Kotto, the former culture minister, said his constituents want more money for community organizations and better public transportation. But he said voters also want clear rules regarding religious accommodations.

But Thériault said voters are tired of the PQ’s divisive identity politics. “They are using the charter, a referendum and language to divide Quebecers and people are fed up,” Thériault said. She said she helped campaign for her Liberal colleagues in several hotly contested ridings across the province and felt the same sentiment across Quebec.

In Anjou-Louis-Riel, voters who come from Portugal, Italy and Haiti who are offended by the charter provision that would ban public employees from wearing religious symbols at work voted in great numbers. “They’re attached to their crosses,” Thériault said.

Like many other Quebecers, Thériault said voters in Anjou, which has the second-largest industrial park in Montreal, want the government to focus on helping create jobs. “Everyone has seen a friend lose a job,” she said.

De Santis and Thériault ran against two North African candidates who are strong supporters of the charter of values. In Bourassa-Sauvé, De Santis defeated the PQ’s Leila Mahiout, director of public relations at the Arab World Festival of Montreal. Thériault defeated Yasmina Chouakri, a political scientist running for the PQ in Anjou-Louis-Riel.

In the Lafontaine riding, which covers the Montreal borough of Rivière des Prairies, former Liberal Party president Marc Tanguay won handily. Liberal incumbent David Heurtel cruised to an easy victory in Viau, winning by 11,000 votes in a riding where 46.6 per cent of voters are non-Caucasian. The riding comprises part of the Villeray — St-Michel — Parc-Extension borough. Filomena Rotiroti was also re-elected for the Liberals in Jeanne-Mance-Viger, winning by 23,000 votes.

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